The M&Ms problem

I showed this video in the Business English class

Before viewing, I asked the students to talk in groups and to tell each other

1. What do you think the video will about?  What do you think the speaker is going to say about why work doesn't happen at work?

Post viewing, I wrote on the board:


1. Why does Jason Fried think that work doesn't happen at work?
2. Based on your own experience, do you agree with him?

And got the students to work in small groups to tell each other their opinions.

New Inventions

In one lesson in the computer lab, I got my students watching four different TED videos on new inventions and commenting on them - see the full exercise and what they did here:

http://ks-ncm-int.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/inventions.html


The next day we watched:

And I wrote on the board:

How do you feel about this device coming into the market?

Would you like to own one? Why or why not?

And I let the students discuss its implications.

a class divided

This film is really good for getting students talking. I've used it only with intermediate and above as you can't get subtitles. If you don't know it... Jane Elliot taught her pupils about racism by segregating her class in Blue & Brown Eyes and getting them to experience discrimination.

The worksheet below is loosely structured to adapt to different levels, but I usually start off by asking students to predict what she does and what she is like from her picture. I don't normally give them any idea about the content as I think it's more powerful if watched without.

https://docs.google.com/a/newcollegemanchester.com/document/d/1iVQJCz9Uh-wuD4sLTMnfmEXPpxa0tNflh5-jxyMGeF0/edit?usp=sharing

Spaghetti Construction

This is one of those activities that will make you laugh and laugh until you cry.

Pre-Watching
- take in a packet of spaghetti, enough marshmallows to go around the groups (I usually give out 3 per group which is different from the video). Give them some cellotape and string - whatever you can drum up from the staffroom!  Tell the students the goal is to build the highest tower out of spaghetti. They have 18minutes to do this in.

- laugh a lot.

- at the end of the laughter, ask the students to tell you what the point of the activity was.


Watching
- let students watch the video.  If a fairly low-level group, turn on the English subtitles. Write on the board "What is the core message of this video?"

Post watching
- get students to discuss in pairs what they felt the core message was and what they learned from it.

- ask the students then to tell you what was different in the video from the activity they did themselves and what they learned - how would they have built their towers differently?  If no one put the marshmallow on top, what do they think would have happened in their constructions?

- which construction was the most interesting they saw? Why?

- ask students for their opinions on why children are particularly good at this activity and why recent graduates from Business school aren't. Why are architects the best of all?  Why does having an Executive admin on the team help?

- what did Tom Wujec say about the addition of "incentives"?  What is the key take-away from that information?

- ask the students if they feel that this particular activity would be interesting to do with their real work colleagues in their own countries. Why or why not?


- finally, get students to collaborate again, by writing instructions on how to create the perfect spaghetti tower.

The Danger of a Single Story, Chimamanda Adichie

I really enjoy using this video when teaching SpeakOut Upper Intermediate, Unit 4 and generally show it after 4.3.

I introduce it by highlighting the "six word story" (corresponding with 4.2) in the six words: The danger of a single story and I ask the students to tell me what they think that this might mean.

Then I point to her name and ask them where they think she may be from.  After eliciting that she may be from Africa, I get them to think about what she might have meant by giving this title to her presentation.

Then we watch the video.

Post video, I ask the students if she had met their expectations, if the talk was what they had anticipated it being and also what they thought her key message was.  Then I ask them to describe what else they found most interesting in the talk.

After that, I encourage the students to flick through the course book.  What single story do they think is being told?  Does this coursebook look like the course books they studied with in their own countries?  As a result, what perception did they have of life in England before coming here?  Is this the same view now that they are here?  What about the way that people look? Their personalities?  Had the message in their coursebooks influenced their views of what people look like or are like?